“What if you’re wrong and they’re still alive?” Ghoika said.
“Then I’d have to hope they fight to escape you the same way I did.”
Ghoika smiled at me.
“You underestimate Changelings,” he said.
“I only know what you’re really like.”
“And would it surprise you to learn they’re still alive?”
“Yes.”
“So that’s why you chose to save your partner’s life?”
“It’s one of the reasons.”
“What are the others?”
There was only one real reason. It trumped the others.
“I fell in love with her,” I said.
Ghoika threw back his head and barked an ugly laugh.
“Yes,” he said. “That is always the excuse they use. For the longest time, I thought love was a kind of madness that made you act against reason. But as I studied it more, I realized it’s merely a dysfunction of your brain. A connection you develop to other things due to chemical imbalances.”
“That’s a scientist’s explanation of love.”
“What other explanation is there? Except for the usual fluffy word salad I often hear. Can you shed more light on the subject?”
“Will it stop you from killing me?”
“No.”
“Then why should I help you understand the most powerful force in the universe?”
Ghoika moved wicked fast. Between one blink and another, I found a pistol in my face.
“Can your love stop a bullet?” he said.
“No.”
“Can it stop Iron Hoof from snapping your neck?”
“No.”
“Can it defeat the mighty Changelings?”
“No.”
Ghoika lowered the pistol.
“Then it’s nothing worth learning about,” he said.
He turned to Iron Hoof.
“He’s due onstage in an hour,” he said. “Get him through makeup and costume, and then onstage. I want you to stay with him in case he tries anything heroic.”
Iron Hoof turned me around on the spot and marched me toward the door.
“There’s one thing you forgot when you asked about love,” I said.
Iron Hoof growled and squeezed my neck harder.
“Let him speak,” Ghoika said.
Iron Hoof relaxed his grip and turned me back around.
“Love isn’t alive, not until it comes in contact with a living thing,” I said. “But it’s not very strong by itself. It’s only powerful when it links two living things together. That’s love. And when its linked to more people, it spreads, growing even stronger. Can love stop a bullet? No. But a loved one might leap in front of someone to prevent them from dying. Can it stop Iron Hoof from killing me? No. Unless he loves me, and then he’d never hurt me. Can it defeat the mighty Changelings?”
I smiled and noticed a flicker of hesitation on the Changeling’s face.
“No,” I said, “unless a species loves their homeworld so much they’re willing to sacrifice their lives to reclaim it. That’s why love is so powerful. And that’s why Changelings will never be as strong as us. They’ll always fail when confronted by love.”
Ghoika stood there a moment, letting the words run through his mind. Then he waved a hand, dismissing us. He still hadn’t moved a muscle.
Iron Hoof marched me out the door.
Can Maddy rescue me from my fate? No. But I would take her with me into the afterlife and love her until the end of time.
Tell me if a blaster pistol could do that.
I was rushed through hair, makeup, and costume and led into the green room by my chaperone.
“Can I make a coffee?” I said, motioning to the facilities on a nearby table.
“No,” Iron Hoof said. “Sit.”
He shoved me into a chair.
On a monitor, I watched as the after-episode talk show continued onscreen. Quus told a few jokes that made no sense to me and didn’t make me laugh, before motioning to a large screen set up for the audience.
“Of course, we all remember how Chax and Maddy met, don’t we?” he said. “And the love they developed over the course of the episode.”
Love.
Changelings didn’t feel love. They certainly didn’t understand it. And yet, by the look of adoration on the faces of the audience as they watched my relationship with Maddy play out, it was something they were obsessed with.
They watched our most personal scenes that’d been replaying for the past few days. Us meeting and our initial argument, us sleeping together the first time, us fighting Iron Hoof, and escaping the Changeling siblings in the barn. And then me protecting her as a bolt of fire roared toward us, enveloping us both. The montage ended with a close up on our faces.
How could these things be so enamored with love when they had no capacity to feel it?
It was because they couldn’t feel it that they loved watching a show about it. The same way a poor man was enamored with his rich neighbors. There was something mysterious and unknown about them. The same way regular people were obsessed with their favorite celebrities.
They fell in love with the idea of it, never expecting to get a piece of it themselves.
Iron Hoof grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to my feet. He led me out of the room and down the hallway toward the side of the stage.
So was there a way for me to tap into the audience’s deepest desires? A way for me to appeal to them? To convince them to let me live? At least then I would have a chance to find Maddy and get out of there.
What if I played on their emotions?
With my death a foregone conclusion, I had nothing to lose.
I had to try.
“…please welcome to the stage, Chax!” Quus said.
Iron Hoof shoved me forward and led me onto the stage. The audience got to their feet and clapped their hands.
Did they know the truth about my situation? Did they even care about it?
I raised a hand in welcome. The presenter shook my hand and led me to the sofa. Iron Hoof took a seat beside me.
“Welcome to the show!” Quus said. “How about that crowd, huh? They love you.”
“And I love them,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach at the sight of them.
“Now, we’ve seen you on this show many times
